


The Freedom of Falling

by onlywordsnow



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV), wayhaught - Fandom
Genre: F/F, F/M, summer beach au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-08-09
Packaged: 2019-06-06 21:06:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15203480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onlywordsnow/pseuds/onlywordsnow
Summary: Waverly Earp has just graduated from high school and, before she heads off to 4 years of college, her older sister Wynonna invites her to stay with her on the beach for the summer.  Upon arriving, Waverly learns a few things about her sister, and herself, that she never knew before.





	1. Arrival

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sensitive_pigeon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sensitive_pigeon/gifts).



The bustling of the airport is like nothing she’s ever seen before. LAX is so busy, the crowd seemingly larger than any gathering she’s ever seen in all of Purgatory, even when the state fair rolls through town. Waverly has never left the small town she grew up in, always envious of Wynonna for going out and seeing the world but, the moment Wynonna invited her out to Malibu for the simmer, she knew she couldn’t turn down the opportunity.

 

She’s only 18, freshly graduated from high school and right on the cusp of starting at a prestigious university. Wynonna, as an apology for not making it to Waverly’s graduation, had offered a consolation invite. At the urging of Curtis and Gus, she accepted the invitation. Curtis has bought her a plane ticket to Los Angeles, and Gus had left her with a few words of wisdom. She had received a sizable amount of cash as a graduation gift from various towns folk, some of which were even parents of her fellow graduates.

 

Now, she’s filing off of the plane with a backpack and a carryon duffel bag, eyes peeled as she looks for Wynonna. She checks her phone for the third time, seeing if she’s missed any calls or texts from her sister, but she doesn’t have any new notifications. She follows a group of people, spotting the sign as it points to baggage claim.

 

The trek is confusing, mostly because she’s never even been in an airport before and she has no idea what markers she’s looking for. Once she finally reaches a metallic circle where other people she recognizes from her flight has gathered, she pieces together that this contraption is the baggage return area. That’s when she spots her - black hair, full of life with a leather jacket and a pair of obnoxious sunglasses.

 

For a moment, she loses Wynonna in the crowd. She keeps circling the area, bags getting heavy in her arms as she sighs in defeat. She’s lost the familiar face.

 

Turning sharply on her heel, she stills in her movements at the sight of a tall, redhead. The woman almost demands attention in any room, standing out like a beacon. The woman has on a pair of light colored blue jeans and a royal blue t-shirt, tight against her body. Waverly can’t help but watch her as she moves across the linoleum floor, mouth of a water bottle perched between her lips. Eyebrows furrowing as the redhead stops beside the leather jacket, elbowing Wynonna hard before they get into a small shoving match.

 

Wynonna stops suddenly, hands still wrapped up in the redhead’s shirt, and yells, “Baby girl!”

 

Waverly smiles widely in response and approaches the pair while Wynonna untwists her hands from the redhead’s shirt to give a dramatic greeting. Her arms are outstretched and Waverly fights the urge to run into them, but she does walk a little faster. The words catch in her throat as she closes the distance between her and her sister; all she’s wanted, since the day Wynonna left, is to see her again.

 

“Wynonna,” she breathes, dropping her duffel bag to the floor and forcing her sister into a hug. She feels Wynonna begrudgingly secure her arms around her, returning the hug. She revels in the sensation.

 

“How was your flight?” Wynonna asks, pulling away all too quickly, “Were you terrified?”

 

“A little,” she admits.

 

“Look at you,” Wynonna says, eyes trailing down to the floor and moving back up to her face, “You’re all grown up.”

 

“She sure is,” the redhead agrees. Waverly’s gaze flits over to the woman she’s never seen before, a wide grin on her mouth. Staring at the dimples in her cheeks, Waverly almost doesn’t even register that the woman is speaking. The woman, somehow with a bag of Fritos suddenly in her hand, wipes her hand off on her pants and extends it for Waverly to take. She says, “I’m Nicole.”

 

“Hi,” Waverly replies. She slips her hand into Nicole’s, immediately met with a squeeze. She feels Wynnona push at her shoulder, prompting her to quickly retract her hand from Nicole’s and turn her attention back to her sister.

 

“Cool it, Haught,” Wynonna mutters through gritted teeth. Waverly sneaks a glance back at Nicole to see her smirking. Wynonna’s fingers tap against her shoulder again as she says, “You got another bag?”

 

“Yeah,” she says with a nod.

 

“Here, I got this,” Wynonna says, leaning down to pick up the duffel bag she’d dropped to the ground. Wynonna isn’t even all of the way upright before she’s handing the bag over to Nicole. The machine starts moving and bags start filing out, sliding onto the turnstile without a care. “Just point your bag out.”

 

After a few minutes, her bag comes tumbling out onto the conveyer belt. Wynonna instructs Nicole to grab it before Waverly can. Waverly thinks this Nicole person is extremely nice, maybe too nice to be friends or whatever with Wynonna.

 

Her sister throws an arm over her shoulders and pulls her close. Wynonna says, “You don’t need to go to the bathroom, do you? We have a long drive and this one doesn’t like to make any stops.”

 

“Hey,” Nicole interjects, “I don’t mind stopping. I just don’t want to stop every time you want to stop.”

 

Wynonna scoffs. The sliding glass doors open and the wind hits Waverly in the face, the sunshine beating down in a much different way than it does back home. The arm around her shoulders tightens as Wynonna drags her in the direction of the parking garage, a couple of steps behind Nicole.

 

Feeling a little nervous, Waverly just listens as her sister bickers with her friend or whatever. Her legs still feel a little stiff from the cramped flight, but she manages to stretch her legs out a little bit on the walk to the car. Wynonna kicks her foot out and pushes Nicole with it in the back of the thigh as they approach a yellow Bronco without a top on it.

 

Nicole tosses a glare at Wynonna over her shoulder, but quickly recovers with a grin in Waverly’s direction. The new face throws her bags into the very back before fishing her keys out of her pants pocket and making her way to the driver’s side of the vehicle. Wynonna pushes Waverly lightly in Nicole’s direction. There’s a to die for smile on Nicole’s face as she pops the seat out of the way to let Waverly crawl into the back.

 

Once she’s thrown her backpack to the side and settles into the middle seat, Nicole leans the seat back and climbs in. She brings the car to life, Britney Spears coming out through the radio. Waverly watches Nicole lean over in front of her in search of something and come back up with a pair of dark sunglasses on.

 

“Seatbelts,” Nicole announces.

 

Wynonna immediately grumbles but obeys anyway. The seat squeaks beneath Waverly as she searches for her own seatbelt. Once she clicks the seatbelt into place, she looks up and locks eyes with Nicole in the rear view mirror. Nicole smiles widely as she moves the vehicle in reverse, easily backing out of the parking spot and moving them to the road.

 

Her sister and Nicole only bicker a little as Wynonna reaches to change the radio and Nicole bats her hand away. The car ride is only an hour long, the sun beating down on her skin but the wind running over her skin, slipping through her hair, keeps her cool in the heat. The transition out of the city is quick and the view is absolutely breathtaking. Wynonna taps her foot on the dashboard of the car while Nicole’s voice softly travels into Waverly’s ears.

 

The condo they pull up to looks like a mansion built on the beach. The outside appears to be a white stucco material, a bright blue sky behind it. It has tall windows, a brilliant landscape in the front yard, and it’s absolutely breathtaking. The blue paint along the doors and windows accentuate the house beautifully. Waverly doesn’t think she’s ever seen anything like it.

 

Nicole eases the Bronco to a delicate stop in the drive way, stopping right in front of the door. Wynonna hops out over the side, not even bothering with the hunk of metal door. When Nicole pops the door open and climbs out, Waverly releases a heavy sigh. She makes eye contact with Nicole who smiles comfortingly and without hesitation. Quickly tearing her eyes away from Nicole’s, she barely notices Wynonna’s friend offer her hand to take. She pushes up onto her feet and throws her backpack strap across her shoulder, slipping her hand into Nicole’s warm one.

 

“Thank you,” she says into the back of her throat. She climbs out of the vehicle, pleasantly surprised when Nicole ushers her forwards without grabbing her suitcase out of the back. “You don’t have-“

 

“You’re a guest,” Nicole interrupts. Begrudgingly, Waverly concedes. She nods weakly, a tight smile spreading across her face as she does so. She takes a step back, putting some space between them, and waits for Nicole’s hospitality to pan out. Nicole grabs her suitcase and pulls it out of the vehicle, turning towards her with a million watt smile, “Besides, your sister has a few…rude habits.”

 

“A few,” Waverly echoes.

 

“But, I’m sure you know that,” Nicole adds. Waverly watches Nicole haphazardly, noting Nicole’s slight blush tingeing her cheeks. She looks sun-kissed beneath Waverly’s gaze, and she has half a mind to wonder what exactly it means. She tries not to read too much into it as this hardly readable stranger with lanky limbs and shoulder length hair shies away. Before Waverly can linger on it for too long Nicole says, “After you.”

 

Waverly steadies her nerves, somehow beginning to fray at the ends as she climbs up the entrance of this massive home, with a slight wringing of the strap to her duffle bag. Silently, she hopes she packed enough to last the entire summer, hopes that at least this mansion has a washer and dryer that isn’t too difficult to figure out. It’s difficult for some reason, with this mysterious Nicole Haught person just a few steps behind her, to enter into this home she’s been invited to but knows nothing about.

 

As she enters the foyer, she notes how spacious this place is. She wonders who managed to get their feet in the front door, how they even managed to score a place like this for the summer. She doesn’t know why she didn’t question it before, the validity of them being here. She’s inquisitive in nature so she, of course, wants to get to the bottom of this, but her curiosity is detoured by Wynonna incoherently screaming from the other room.

 

“Baby girl!” Wynonna yells, coming into the room with a bottle and two clear glasses in her hand. Waverly’s skin jumps when the front door loudly shuts behind her, the noise echoing throughout the hollow room with ease. “Come do some shots with me!”

 

“Wynonna,” Waverly starts, but hesitates.

 

“Here,” Nicole says softly, just into her ear as she reaches for the strap to the duffle bag over her shoulder, “I’ll take your bags to your room.”

 

“Oh, thanks,” Waverly mutters, distracted by everyone talking to her at once. The weight is lifted off of her shoulder and Nicole quickly disappears down the hallway. Waverly freely turns her attention back to her sister and says, “I don’t think shots are the best idea on an empty stomach.”

 

“Oh, shit. You’re right,” Wynonna absently agrees, downing a shot anyway, “Haught here’s a great cook. She’ll whip something right up.”

 

“Wynonna,” she chastises, “You can’t just-“

 

“No, it’s fine. Right, Haught?”

 

“Sure,” Nicole agrees as she enters the room, “Something edible. Coming right up.”

 

Waverly sighs, dejected already. She feels guilty for making her sister’s friend cater to her. She’s a guest, sure, but an extended guest. She can pitch in a little. It’s the least she can do. Her Uncle Curtis sent her with some money, but he said to spend it wisely with a wink. Her Aunt Gus gave her an American Express and told her it was only for emergencies, and bailing Wynonna out of jail wasn’t even considered an emergency.

 

Although Gus had been against her coming in the first place, her guardians had ultimately agreed that she was a grown woman who hadn’t been outside of Purgatory her whole life. They thought after all of her hard work in school and at Shorty’s that she deserved a last hurrah before she hunkered down to focus on 4 years of college. And they trusted her far more than they had ever trusted Wynonna, not that they hid that fact very well.

 

Trailing behind Nicole, she struggles to keep up do to the presumably older woman’s long legs. She was significantly taller than Waverly. She was a lot of things different from Waverly. That much Waverly was sure of.

 

“I’m sorry,” she pipes up just a few feet behind Nicole, “You don’t have to take care of me.”

 

“It’s ok, Waverly,” Nicole muses, stopping in the kitchen and leaning against the island in the center of the bright, white room, “I cook for Wynonna all of the time.”

 

“Oh,” Waverly says, beginning to discern the situation. Her eyes connect with Nicole’s for just a moment and she notes the color in them, the way they contrast with her bright, red hair. Waverly wonders if it’s a natural hair color. It certainly doesn’t look like it would come from a bottle. She smiles tightly in response, quickly recovering from her wavering, “Well, at least let me help you.”

 

“Sure,” Nicole says with a nod. The smile Waverly receives in return makes her feel warm and a little noticed. She tries not to read too much into it, moving forward to assist in gathering food. Nicole hands her some fruits out of the refrigerator, which she promptly sets on the island. “How about a fruit salad?”

 

“Sounds amazing,” Waverly says. She feels her confidence leave her body, not that she’s felt all that confident since she’s landed, and turns to look at Nicole.

 

Nicole is separating the fruit to cut and, like an expert in the kitchen, reaches over and fishes a knife out for them to cut the fruit up. Nicole leaves it on the counter as she steps away to grab a bowl from the cabinet. Waverly steps forward and picks up the knife, angling a pineapple in a way that she can cut it. The pineapple has had the outer protective layer removed and is slick yet easy to cut. The other fruits lined up on the counter include watermelon, cantaloupe, kiwi, banana, strawberries, and mango.

 

“You look like you’ve done this before,” Nicole says, a slight grin apparent in her voice. Waverly laughs but quickly chastises herself at how stupid she sounds. And she has done this before, many times. She cuts up limes at her aunt and uncle’s bar all of the time. “Seems like there’s a few things about you that Wynonna hasn’t told me.”

 

“Stop talking about me,” Wynonna says, coming into the kitchen. She quickly swipes a piece of pineapple that Waverly has already cut up and pops it into her mouth. “Although, I do love being the talk of the town.”

 

“Oh please,” Nicole immediately says with a laugh. Nicole steps around behind Waverly and slaps Wynonna’s hand. Wynonna slaps Nicole back on the arm and they quickly break out into a little wrestling session. Waverly blinks and Nicole is standing behind Wynonna, arms across Wynonna’s middle. “People aren’t always talking about you, Wynonna.”

 

“But you are,” Wynonna quickly replies. She turns around in Nicole’s arms and pushes up onto her toes. She laughs deep into the back of her throat and says, “You know you’re in love with me.”

 

“You caught me,” Nicole says, lifting her hands up in defeat, “Truly, madly, deeply.”

 

Wynonna smirks and leaves the kitchen just as quickly as she’d come blazing in. Waverly swallows thickly, her brain working overtime to understand what exactly just happened in front of her. Nicole, however, is watching Wynonna’s shadow as it disappears into another place of the house. Instead of lingering too much on it, Waverly just goes back to cutting the fruit as Nicole follows Wynonna’s form.

 

While alone, Waverly finishes cutting and tosses all of the fruit into a bowl. Once she’s done that, she searches the kitchen for a fork and starts eating a little. She then deposits the trash into the trashcan and puts the rest of the fruit salad back into the refrigerator. She retires to her room, putting clothes away and relaxing for a bit.

 

Waverly is surprised at how cold it feels outside as the sun begins its descent behind the horizon. Overly prepared per usual, she wraps a sweater around her and hold it tightly to her body as she exits her makeshift room. The room is downstairs just off of the living room, windows exposing her to the front of the house where the Bronco sits, yellow coat less bright in the fading sun. The room itself has walls painted white, except for one wall that’s painted a light blue color, and it has a soft beach vibe that she finds welcoming.

 

When she enters into the living room she sees Nicole sitting in one corner of the couch and Wynonna with her head resting in Nicole’s lap. Nicole is busy looking at her phone while Wynonna watches something on the television. Waverly glances at the television to determine what Wynonna is watching, some action movie that seems to purely focus on women in the forefront, but it’s something that she’s never seen before.

 

Wynonna looks over at her as she turns back to the pair on the couch and tilts her head up in greeting. Waverly shakes her head gently, Wynonna briefly reminding her of all of the boys from back home that her older sister hated. Wynonna had never really fit in with any crowd in Purgatory. That’s probably why she left as soon as she could. And Waverly has never blamed her, just missed her.

 

“I’m going to go for a walk,” Waverly says to Wynonna. She’s noticed that, by now, Nicole is looking at her with a soft gaze. She quickly flits her gaze between the two and smiles tightly at her sister. “Want to come?”

 

“Nah,” Wynonna says, immediately gesturing to the television, “I’m good here.”

 

“Ok,” she replies, pushing her resolve to her edges.

 

She stands up straighter, spine aching from her day of being cramped up, and nods. She knows that Wynonna doesn’t mean to hurt her feelings, but that doesn’t keep it from happening. She contains a sigh as she moves through the living room and towards the kitchen to exit onto the patio. From the patio, she will take the stairs down to the beach and look at the ocean.

 

She’s never seen the ocean before.

 

She rushes across the living room to the back door where the patio is alight from the glow of the moon. She hesitates with her hand on the door handle to look over her shoulder at her sister. When she looks, she notices Nicole is watching her but her head quickly darts back towards the television like she hasn’t been caught. Despite Waverly’s disappointment that Wynonna isn’t interested in joining her, she smiles at the movement and heads back to her task.

 

She closes the patio door behind her and makes her way down the stairs. She reaches the bottom and buries her toes into the sand. The sand is cold just like the air that surrounds her. She obviously should have changed into pants before she decided to come outside. The hairs on her legs are beginning to stand on their ends in an attempt to warm her. She only hugs herself tighter in response.

 

She’s only a few feet away from the bottom of the stairs when she hears the sound of feet padding against the patio and quickly descending the stairs. Nicole jogs up beside her and slows to match her pace. She feels Nicole’s arm brush against hers and she looks over at her. Nicole’s pants are rolled up at the bottom and stop halfway up her shin, and she’s wearing a short-sleeved, black t-shirt. Waverly thinks she looks cold.

 

“She’s really happy you’re here, Waverly,” Nicole says gently. They walk in silence for a few minutes. Waverly takes this time to observe the space around her, taking in her surroundings. She watches the waves crash into the sand for just a moment. Nicole continues, “I know she doesn’t show it well, but you’re all she talks about.”

 

“Yeah,” Waverly muses. She knows what Nicole’s saying is true, but there’s still just something about it that hurts her feelings. Wynonna invited her out here but has hardly spent 5 minutes with her. She knows she’s only been here for 10 hours, but it still would have been nice to have a warm welcome. “She’s just…Wynonna.”

 

“And Wynonna is great,” Nicole quickly replies. Waverly smiles forcefully. She absently wonders why Nicole is so quick to come to Wynonna’s aid. But, then again, she does know next to nothing about this woman. “She cares a lot about you.”

 

“I know,” Waverly hums, “I’m kind of tired. I think I’m gonna go back in and go to bed.”

 

“Ok,” Nicole agrees.


	2. Soak Up the Sun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Waverly doesn't know what to think of it all.

Waverly wakes up slowly, the sun pouring into the bedroom. She squints as she yawns and stretches, getting the kinks from the flight out of her bones. She manages to sit up and get out of bed. She quickly sifts through her clothes and picks something out to wear for the day, a blue sundress that stops just above her knees.

 

She wore it a few times when she went out with Champ, but those dates were always slightly disappointing. She doesn’t even know why she was constantly disappointed in her dates with him when she always knew better than to expect anything. She had decided that when she came out here without him that it was better that they break up, even though she was extremely comfortable in whatever they had going on.

 

Champ was older than her, but he was less mature. She spent most of her time with him being the responsible one, watching him play video games rather than going out and doing anything together. She was bored with him but he was nice enough, and nice is hard to find in Purgatory.

 

No longer wanting to reminisce about a life she’s going to be leaving behind, she exits the bedroom to head further down the hallway towards the bathroom. On the way to the bathroom, she sees that there’s a door cracked to the right with a light shining into the hallway. She can’t help herself and she takes a peak, catching sight of someone bent over and stretching. The body stands upright and the bright red hair is a giveaway that it’s Nicole.

 

Waverly’s eyes slide over Nicole’s backside, examining her from head to toe, and silently appreciates the tightness of the joggers around Nicole’s ass. In an instant, Waverly realizes what she’s doing and snaps back into the moment. She quickly takes a step back and rushes to the bathroom, silently chastising herself for...whatever exactly it was she was doing.

 

_Was she checking Nicole out?_

 

She brushes it off all too quickly and fiddles with the shower handles, attempting to figure out the hot and cold. The night before she had unpacked, including her toiletries from home that she discarded into the bathroom, so she’s all set to take a shower. The water kicks on and Waverly lets her fingers hang under the water until she begins to feel warmth hit her skin. She moves out of the way of the water flow and closes the curtain. As the room begins to fill with steam she starts undressing, placing her dirty clothes off to the side.

 

It’s warming up, definitely warmer than the beach was last night or even the bedroom was a few minutes ago. She takes a moment to bask in the warmth and NOT think about whether or not she has just been checking out her sister’s friend. For all she knows, Nicole is actually Wynonna’s girlfriend. Instantly, she feels terrible at that realization.

She gets into the shower and scrubs her skin hard beneath the possibly just slightly too hot water, trying to rid herself of the guilt. Her skin aches a little as the water stings, but it helps calm her a bit. The warmth helps distract her from the feelings she may have mildly entertained when seeing Nicole bend over into a stretch.

 

She goes through her normal motions of showering, shampoo and conditioner through her long hair and soap all over. She’s trying to wash the airplane off, the beach off, the guilt off, but she still feels a heavy weight on her. She can’t quite place it, can’t tell exactly what is resonating on her and where the feeling is originating.

 

Instead of dwelling on this too long, she gets out of the shower and starts to make herself presentable. Applying a thin layer of makeup, Waverly stares at her reflection just to make sure she’s presentable. Her hair is wavier than she originally wanted and the bathroom is beautiful, but she’s tired of being cooped up in this already. Not when she could be out seeing places she’s only seen in pictures and movies.

 

She exits the bathroom, letting the cold air from the rest of the house permeate against her skin. She becomes littered with goose bumps across her legs and arms at the feel of the cool air. It prompts her to move through the house a little quicker. She nearly misses the way the sun seeps into the living room from the windows at the back of the house. She only hesitates for the briefest of moments, sighing at the sight of the water crashing into the beach. It takes her breath away and she commits it to memory.

 

Her stomach rumbles and it breaks her attention from the beauty of nature before her. She turns and heads up the stairs, an area she only viewed on Wynonna’s tour that only went as far as Wynonna bragging that she’s staying in the master bedroom. Waverly retraces the steps from the day before, fingers trailing across the white walls as she makes her way down the glorious hallway.

 

When she gets to Wynonna’s claimed bedroom, the door is already cracked open. Before entering, Waverly peeks in and sees a lump beneath the blankets in the center of the bed. She releases a steadying breath, slowly making her way into the room. She nearly trips on Wynonna’s discarded dirty clothes and randomly kicked off boots, but she manages to keep herself upright. She expertly moves into the room and slides beneath the blanket, poking the body beneath it in the ribs.

 

Wynonna groans loudly and rolls onto her side. She thinks about when she was little and used to sneak into Wynonna’s bedroom for her to keep her safe from the monsters in her nightmares and decides to risk it. She curls into Wynonna’s side, wrapping an arm around her older sister’s waist. She’s pleasantly surprised when her sister responds positively by wrapping her arms around her. Wynonna’s thick hair gets stuck between them for a moment and the ends cover Waverly’s nose and mouth.

 

Waverly lifts a hand to push the hair away from her face but can’t get her hand between them. She burrows herself more into her older sister, enjoying the warmth from the cold air that had surrounded her. She twists a little in Wynonna’s embrace, trying to free her airway to breathe easier.

“Wynonna,” she whispers, like she doesn’t want to disturb her sister from sleep, “Are you hungry?”

 

“Sleep,” Wynonna grumbles, “Shhhh.”

 

“I’m hungry,” Waverly replies, poking Wynonna hard, “Get up.”

 

“Ouch,” Wynonna cries, rolling over onto her back. She takes the blankets with her and it leaves Waverly cold. A pout and a whine slips out from between her lips and she reaches for the blanket. Waverly burrows beneath the blanket again. Wynonna almost instinctively wraps her arms around her and says, “Retract the claws, babygirl.”

 

Waverly nuzzles into her older sister, stomach grumbling again. She holds in a groan to match her stomach, becoming increasingly annoyed at her hunger. She wishes she could thwart it or that she felt comfortable to raid the refrigerator and make breakfast herself.

 

“I can make something,” she offers.

 

“The fridge is pretty bare,” someone not snuggled in the bed says from somewhere else in the room.

 

Waverly lifts her head from Wynonna’s neck and does a quick sweep of the room, her eyes finally landing on Nicole. For just a moment, Waverly thinks about when she stumbled on Nicole in the gym between her bedroom and the bathroom, the woman’s frame almost something she had never considered as a sight to see before. Despite feeling her cheeks beginning to warm and a fluster coursing through her, Waverly smiles tightly - almost forcefully.

 

She says, “Oh, well, Uncle Curtis and Aunt Gus gave me some money. I can buy breakfast.”

 

She gently squeezes Wynonna’s stomach to really enunciate her point. Her sister almost lets the silence hang for too long as Waverly suddenly realizes Nicole is standing in the doorway of the master bathroom connected to Wynonna’s room with a toothbrush in her hand. It’s all too much, too overwhelming for her mind to meld anything, so she swallows thickly and pushes it to the back of her mind.

 

“You don’t need to do that,” Nicole says before Wynonna can even say anything, “Save your money. Buy something for yourself.”

 

“Off limits,” Wynonna interjects, loosening her grasp on Waverly.

 

Her sister sits upright almost instantly. Waverly can no longer see Wynonna’s face but she can see the way Nicole’s face shifts as though the two women are having a silent conversation. Nicole eventually concedes and lifts her hands into the air, toothbrush still clutched in her grasp. Waverly watches as the room becomes tense and Nicole exits, turning back into the bathroom.

 

“Wynonna?” Waverly asks.

 

“Let me get dressed, baby girl,” Wynonna says with a sigh.

 

Waverly nods and clambers off of the bed, making her way out of the bedroom.  She hears muffled voices as she makes her way down the hallway, pausing briefly at the top of the stairs for some reason. She has always been a little sneaky, trying to listen in on conversations she has no business being part of, but she was often left out of stuff as a kid. She hears an elongated huff from behind her, her hand grasping the handle bar for the staircase, and she chances a look behind her. She locks eyes with Nicole who just paints a smile on who face in return.

 

“I’ll go start the car,” Nicole says.

 

The taller woman with legs for days snakes down the hallway, hand grazing just over the small of Waverly’s back as she slips past her to head down the stairs. Waverly feels a slight burn on her skin and she feels confused as her breath hitches in her throat, the sound of her heartbeat drowned out by the noise Nicole makes when she descends the stairs. She wonders what happened after she left the room, but it couldn’t have been much since it was less than a minute.

 

“Where’s Haught?” Wynonna asks, barreling out of her bedroom.

 

“She went to start the car,” Waverly replies softly. She has a lot of questions, but she doesn’t ask any of them. Instead she asks, “Is everything ok?”

 

“You bet,” Wynonna says, giving abrupt thumbs up that makes Waverly feel a little blown off. Wynonna slides up behind her, giving her a firm pat on the ass. “Come on, baby girl. I thought you were starving.”

 

“I am,” Waverly says insistently. As if her words aren’t enough, her stomach sounds loudly to really enunciate her point. She feels sheepish, her face warming beneath Wynonna’s growing smirk. “Heh, starving.”

 

“You don’t say,” Wynonna teases.

 

They bound down the stairs and exit the house. Waverly is concerned about the security of the home as Wynonna ignores locking the door behind them and hops into the car. Waverly hesitates by the front door but continues towards the Bronco; where Nicole immediately pops open the driver door and steps out of it. Nicole leaves the car door open and heads around the car, climbing the steps to the house. She locks up and continues back to the car.

 

While Waverly struggles to climb in to the vehicle the hem of her dress getting caught in the wind. She throws an arm back to keep the dress from catching in the wind any longer but in the movement she nearly loses her balance. As she feels herself begin to fall backwards, she feels a pressure on each of her hips with the indication that something is steadying her.

 

“Whoa,” Nicole hums and Wynonna plays with the radio, “You okay?”

 

“Haught,” Wynonna says, tone inhibiting a hint of warning, “Let’s book it.”

 

“Yeah, yeah,” Nicole says from behind her, “You got it?”

 

“I got it,” Waverly replies reassuringly.

 

She most definitely does not have it alone. Nicole pushes her forward as she climbs into the backseat, quickly dropping down against the fraying cloth. She doesn’t look at either of the people in the front seat because she feels a tension there, one she doesn’t really want to be part of. She’s beginning to regret her suggestion of food as they mostly drive to wherever they’re going in silence.

 

Her hair gets caught in the wind, much like it does in her red Jeep Wrangler back home, and she has to squint to keep the sun out of her eyes. She was vastly unprepared when they left the house, even going as far as leaving her purse and phone back at the house.  Not that she has anyone particular to talk to, except for her Uncle Curtis and Aunt Gus.  And surely she could just give them a call right back.  

 

There’s a little bit of banter in the front seat, but Waverly can’t really hear anything being said because the words are drowned out by the wind. Nicole seems to be an alert driver despite the banter and the way Wynonna can be super distracting as a passenger. Waverly knows this from first hand experience, even though it has only been a handful of times that she’s seen her sister since she moved from Purgatory a few years ago.

 

Waverly starts thinking about what Wynonna has been up to since they were last in the same room. It was her birthday 2 years ago, just a few days before Wynonna’s own birthday and also the day she snuck out in the middle of the night. Wynonna kept in touch a decent amount. It still sometimes wasn’t enough. Waverly even wonders the last time Wynonna saw Willa. Has it been since she had last seen Wynonna?

 

Her thoughts are quickly shaken as Nicole expertly guides the Bronco into the parking lot of a rather busy spot that’s positioned just off of a pier and a few blocks from the beach. The parking lot is rather sporadic but Nicole finds a spot that’s just beside the curb and not too far from a place with the word cafe in the name. The Bronco halts quickly yet gently, and the mostly inaudible radio goes completely silent as the car is turned off. Wynonna tumbles out of the car like a bull in a china closet making a lot of noise. Nicole pops open the door of the driver’s side right as Wynonna slams the passenger side shut, and Nicole is nice enough to help Waverly climb out of the tight back seat once again.

 

She needs to make a reminder not to wear a sundress while going out with the two of them again. Or any time she has to ride in the back seat. For maybe the rest of her life.

 

She smiles bashfully as she follows her sister towards the restaurant a few steps behind her. She hopes that neither her sister nor Nicole can see the bashful look, the embarrassment etching away at her confident facade. Truth be told, she knows she’s been here less than a day, but she’s afraid she’s having a hard time connecting with Wynonna. Sure, Wynonna is a few years older than her and she has gone off to live her own life away from Purgatory (and Waverly), but they’ve kept in touch. Her sister hasn’t changed that much. She’s still the loud, wild Wynonna that she’s always known. Maybe she’s just overthinking it.

 

They enter the restaurant like a train, the loud rumble of voices combining in a limited space taking over Waverly’s thought process. She definitely needs the distraction before her thoughts get away from her and she’s suddenly down a rabbit hole that she can’t get out of. She has a tendency sometimes to convince herself of things that aren’t true or aren’t even originally on her radar. That’s the reason it took her so long to break up with her jerk of a boyfriend. God, the last time she was in the same room with her sister she had never even had a boyfriend.

 

“Booth or a table?” Nicole repeats the restaurant employee, this time directly behind her and looking at Waverly.

 

Waverly squirms beneath the expecting gaze as Wynonna pushes at Nicole’s shoulder, “We don’t care. Just pick, dweeb.”

 

“Fine,” Nicole grumbles, turning her attention back to the woman who is patiently and impatiently at the same time awaiting their answer, “Booth.”

 

Wynonna groans. She says, “You just pick booth so you can be smashed up against me.”

 

“You’re right,” Nicole retorts with a wink and grin. The combination isn’t even directed at Waverly and yet Waverly feels her stomach do some weird somersault thing. She’s pretty sure her sister mutters a ‘ _gross_ ’ but that reaction is quickly replaced with Nicole sliding into the booth and Wynonna sliding in behind her, pressing their sides together. She says, deadpanned, “You seem really grossed out.”

 

“Get bent,” Wynonna says. Waverly takes the empty booth and sits across from them, suddenly feeling like a weird third wheel. Wynonna pushes a hand into Nicole’s face as the waitress sets a menu on the table in front her which Wynonna promptly lifts between them like a door as she looks at Waverly. “Ay, baby girl, they even have some of that vegan shit you’re going on about here.”

 

“That vegan shit is good for you,” Nicole says as she pushes the menu down, ignoring Wynonna to look at Waverly too, “Your sister practically barfs when she eats a salad.”

 

“You know me, I love a good hunk of meat,” Wynonna says with a smirk as she flattens the menu on the table and opens it.

 

“Gross,” Nicole says under her breath.

 

Waverly laughs, if not a bit uncomfortable then because for some unknown reason she wants Nicole to think that she’s funny. The laugh sounds a little stiff and it has both pairs of eyes on her from across the table. She holds up her hands defensively and says, “What? It was funny.”

 

Wynonna quirks an eyebrow up suspiciously but Nicole seems to accept this answer, looking down at her lap. It takes a few moments to realize that Nicole has her phone in her hand, a lazy grin on her face. Waverly wonders what she’s smiling at but she certainly doesn’t have the gall to ask.

 

“You gonna look at the menu?” Wynonna presses, pointing aggressively at the menu on the table before her.

 

“I don’t know why you are,” Nicole quickly replies, not even looking up from her phone, “You get the same thing every time.”

 

“Bite me,” Wynonna says.

 

“Oh, you’d love that,” Nicole says with a laugh. She finally looks up from her phone, immediately setting the device down on the table.

 

Wynonna rolls her eyes, muttering, “Kinky.”

 

Thankfully, the waitress quickly interrupts whatever Waverly is witnessing and takes their drink orders. Both the people she’s at the table with get distracted with their phones so she decides to look over the menu in the silence. Probably for the better. Even though she usually goes on and on about vegan foods, she doesn’t much get to try it with the restaurants and other eating spots back home in Purgatory. The healthier food options in California had been the thing she was second most excited about when Curtis and Gus approved her coming for the summer.

 

She finally spots something on the menu that sounds delicious, avocado toast that she’s wanted to make at home but hasn’t been able to convince Curtis to give it a go. When the waitress comes back for her order she points that out and asks for a side of fruit as well. It takes about 15 minutes for the food to come out (eggs and hash browns and bacon for Wynonna, stack of pancakes for Nicole), and during this time the table is filled with mostly silence save for the occasional jabs between Wynonna and Nicole.

 

Waverly feels like she doesn’t understand their dynamic. One minute they’re bickering like to two women who spend countless hours together and the next they’re being flirty like two people who just met. It’s obvious they care a lot about each other, even if Wynonna has never mentioned Nicole before.

 

The food arrives and they eat, Nicole picking up the tab after the fact. Waverly suddenly feels overwhelmed with the desire to know Nicole better, to know things about her that’s much deeper than the surface. She wants to know what has brought her here for the summer. Her sister’s best friend is almost as big of a mystery as her own sister is.

 

After eating they head back to the beach house. It’s closer to noon than it is to eleven and Waverly follows the two surprisingly close people into the house. She immediately excuses herself into the bedroom where she located her phone on the nightstand. She goes through the notifications, a long list of missed messages and phone calls - some she’s happy to receive and some that she isn’t.

 

Champ has been texting her ever since she broke up with him right before graduation 3 weeks ago. She has done her best to be civil throughout the break up due to a few mutual friends (Stephanie Jones who she truthfully doesn’t like that much), but she’s thousands of miles away now. She doesn’t have to deal with his drama. She chooses to ignore his many, many texts to give Curtis a call back.

 

She tells him she arrived safely and didn’t have to wait a second for Wynonna because she had already arrived. She also tells him about the house and the restaurant, bragging about the avocado toast with hope that he will attempt it in the future. His voice is warm on the phone, and he asks her if she needs anything - then he offers to send her some more money. She declines knowing that he will probably deposit money into her bank account anyway.

 

She had spent the school year working the lunch shift at Shorty’s on weekends, as long as they weren’t game days, and was able to save up quite a bit of money. Curtis and Gus have repeatedly told her that doesn’t mean they can’t do a little to help her out, seeing as she worked all school year (and the summer before her final year), was a cheerleader and still managed to snag the rarely coveted role of valedictorian. They were pretty much the best parents she could have asked for, a little tough sometimes but at least she knows they care.

 

After ending the phone call, she kills a little time scrolling through Facebook. She really hates the thing but high school was a popularity contest, if she didn’t have a Facebook then she would have ended up an outcast. Like Wynonna. And, as much as she loves her sister, she didn’t really want to be extradited from everything she knew the moment she turned 18.

 

After gathering a little intel on everyone back home (no, Champ didn’t miss her as much as he claimed and yes, Stephanie Jones is still awful), she decides to dig the book that she had brought to read on the plane out of her bag. _Persuasion_ is a classic that Waverly always enjoyed, having read it too many times to count. She doesn’t even think she could recall all of the times she’s read it. She only made it to the third chapter on the plane because she felt displaced the entire flight by turbulence and just being in the air. Besides, she doesn’t want to read it too quickly as she didn’t pack any other reading material.

 

She hears a noise upstairs that makes her jump in her skin, the scare leaving some residual shock on her nerves. The thump, however, is quick and seemingly quickly forgotten as no additional noise follows. Waverly writes it off as nothing to be concerned about as she leaves her bedroom and makes her way down the hallway, entering the living room.

 

The living room is empty. Neither Nicole nor Wynonna are present and the living room actually looks like someone has tidied up, it looks spotless with the television off and the sun shining in. If Waverly had to bet, she would guess that Nicole had folded the blanket and fluffed the cushions on the couch. Even when they were kids Wynonna’s room was always in complete disarray and neither Uncle Curtis nor Aunt Gus could convince her to clean up by any means.

 

Her gaze shifts to the sand outside. It looks so clean and pure in this sunlight that Waverly feels drawn to it, feels the need to sink her feet into it again. The beach in the day, at least the minimal time she has spent on it thus far, is much warmer than it is at night. The breeze looks like it’s still flowing, but it is gentle as the sunlight reflects off of the crystal water.

 

She clutches her book tightly in her grasp and heads outside, where the heat from the sun beats down on the ground floor and the waves crash into the beach. She doesn’t descend the stairs right away but she lingers on the deck to peel her shoes off of her feet to leave them behind. She sets them down near the sliding back door and carefully takes the stairs to the beach, an exquisitely different feeling overtaking her than had taken over her last night.

 

She takes about 11 steps straight out into the sand around 6 feet from the wet lines from where the tide has rolled in, and she lowers herself into the grains of sand. She has yet to put on her bathing suit, but the water looks mystically inviting. She knows she will have to test it out soon, hopefully marking off a new experience from the list she made with Curtis before she left.

 

She folds her legs up beneath her, crossing them as she settles the book into her lap. She quickly pushes her hair behind her ears while tilting her head down to look at her book, parting the pages open to where she left off. She starts reading the words on the page, hair getting caught in the wind every so often as waves crash against the beach just in front of her. The next thing she knows she’s on chapter 8 and her stomach is grumbling again.

 

She marks her page in her book and closes it, leaning back and burying her hands into the sand. The sun is brighter than she remembers it being and she has to squint. It’s just a few minutes of leaning back before she hears clattering on the wooden stairs behind her. She looks over her shoulder and spots Nicole coming down the stairs, clad in a two piece blue bathing suit with some unique design and a pair of shorts that cover her white legs.

 

“Nicole,” Waverly mutters through a breath, eyes undeniably giving those tall legs a once over.

 

“Hey, Waverly,” she replies, smile easy and warm, “How long have you been out here?”

 

“I’m not sure,” she admits; she picks up her book and lifts it slightly off of her lap, “I’ve just been reading.”

 

“Oh yeah?” Nicole says, voice slightly coy but interested nonetheless, “What are you reading?”

 

“ _Persuasion_ ,” she says, setting it back down. She feels silly all of a sudden, reading a book over and over about something she can’t really relate to, but the literature makes her feel a little bit free like she has some sense of free will. “Have you ever read it?”

 

“In school, ages ago,” Nicole replies. Waverly watches curiously as Nicole bends carefully and settles into the sand next to her. Nicole stretches her legs out and crosses them at the ankles. She says, “I don’t even think I remember it.”

 

“I can loan it to you when I’m done,” Waverly replies, voice sounding a little hopeful.

 

Nicole hums and says, “Maybe you should read it to me.”

 

Waverly stops breathing and her mind does go to the idea that maybe Nicole is flirting with her. She doesn’t even know if she would like that. She hesitates for a little too long and decides to ignore it, turning her head slightly to look at Wynonna’s redheaded friend.

 

“What are you doing out here?”

 

“Before I saw you,” Nicole starts, voice sounding a slight bit suggestive, “I was going down the beach to grab a surf board and hit the waves.”

 

“Wynonna calls me that,” Waverly ruminates.

 

“It’s perfect,” Nicole says, “How ‘bout it, Waves? Ready to give it a try?”

 

“Me? Oh no,” she says with a furtive shake of her head, “I couldn’t. I would just slow you down.”

 

“Maybe another day then?” Nicole suggests.

 

“Yeah,” she agrees, “Maybe.”

 

There’s a few minutes of silence as she looks out over the waves again, stomach turning at the idea of venturing out into the vast ocean. She’s never been into the ocean and, although it sounds thrilling, the ocean is endless and miles deep. She could disappear and no one would ever know. Well, she’s sure they would send a search party for her but the thought still shakes her to her core.

 

She sighs gently as she stands up, a ghostly feeling at her hips as she does so. She looks over at Nicole who has a slight blush on her cheeks but is still looking at her rather inquisitively. Their eyes lock for a moment, Waverly clutching her book tighter.

 

She says, “Be safe, Nicole.”

 

Smiling, Nicole gives her a firm nod of acknowledgment but doesn’t say anything further.

 

Waverly retreats back into the house, willing herself not to glance over her shoulder at Nicole. She’s known the other woman for about a day, but she feels like she hardly knows anything about her. Regardless of however much she wonders about the mystery of Nicole Haught, she came here to spend time with her sister.

 

She grabs her shoes before re-entering the house and takes them to her room where she deposits those as well as her book. The house as she walks through it sounds with echoes of her movements but is otherwise silent, her sister nowhere to be seen or heard. She heads up the stairs in search for Wynonna, going directly to Wynonna’s bedroom. Her sister sits at the end of the bed, phone in one hand and bottle of whiskey in the other.

 

“Nonna?”

 

“Where’ve you been?” Wynonna asks, looking up from her phone and setting on the bed.

 

“Reading,” Waverly says, moving a little further into the room.

 

“Outside?” Wynonna continues, confused look on her face, “You’re looking a little red.”

 

“Shit,” Waverly mutters, finally seeing the red tint of her skin, “I didn’t even think about sunscreen.”

 

“That’s gonna hurt tomorrow,” Wynonna practically cackles. She quickly covers up the noise with a swig from the bottle of whiskey. Surprisingly, she offers the bottle to Waverly and she decides to take it, gulping down a mouth full. She nearly chokes on it, covering it up with a hand as she gives the bottle back. “Easy there, baby girl.”

 

They pass the bottle back and forth for a little while. She eventually falls asleep, lethargic from the sunburn and the bit of alcohol in her system. She wakes up a little later, her skin still stinging and Wynonna snoring beside her. If she had to guess, she would say it was her sister’s nasal cavity that woke her. She takes a quick look around the room, noticing that the television is bright and playing something she doesn’t recognize but is otherwise dark.

 

She forces herself out of the bed with a grimace and makes her way down the stairs. She sees Nicole laying there, eyes closed peacefully and brightened by the much larger television screen. Waverly glances at the television and sees it’s something sports related. It suddenly occurs to her that maybe Nicole had nowhere else to sleep. She feels guilty.

 

She steps forward and gently shakes Nicole awake, muttering something about how she can go to bed now. Nicole smiles sleepily, maybe a little confused, Waverly isn’t too sure. Nicole stretches and yawns as Waverly backs away. She puts space between them despite the fact that she’s drawn to the woman, despite that her insides are screaming to be closer (and her outsides are screaming to be cooked off).

 

“Good night, Waves,” Nicole mutters softly. Nicole flicks off the television and the living room is only lit by the moonlight seeping in.

 

She can’t help the smile that tugs at the corners of her mouth. She says, “Good night.”

 

They make their way to their respective sleeping spots, two separate floors and two separate beds. Waverly can’t help thinking, as she pulls her sundress off and leaves it on the floor, that whoever gets to be near that gentle woman at night is lucky. She feels a tinge of jealousy towards Wynonna.

 

Chastising herself, she changes into something loose to wear to bed. Her skin warms her as she falls asleep, thanking whoever is above for the sheets being cool as she slips between them. The heat pressed against her skin drains her of her energy and she’s quickly back to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't normally do this but I poured a lot of heart and soul into this so it leads to begging. I beg of you to offer me feedback. Feedback on what you like, don't like, summer memories or things you would like Waverly to try. Also, shout out to Mikaela for being a hella sounding board and for looking over this before I posted this awesome update.


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